


Phone Calls Are Extremely Stressful

by readergirl101



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, Fluff, i think, this should just be good and pure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-04-28 07:59:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14444841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readergirl101/pseuds/readergirl101
Summary: She spoke to Amethyst again. “You were adopted, right?”Amethyst frowned. She sat up straight. “Yeah. Is this one of those survey things?”“No,” Jayna said quickly.  “Actually, um- me and my sisters are pretty sure-”Jayna had the phone snatched from her. “Hey!”A new voice spoke this time.  “We think we’re your sisters.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Something About Roommates and Girlfriends](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7969258) by [TheLillie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLillie/pseuds/TheLillie). 



They were halfway through rewatching Camp Pining Hearts season four when Amethyst’s phone rang. She didn’t know the number. Assuming it was some kind of marketing scam she motioned for Lapis not to bother pausing. She answered it anyway.

“Hello?”

Someone was shushing several other voices before she spoke. “Is this Amethyst Quartz?”

Amethyst leaned her head back over the arm of the couch. “Yeah. That’s me.”

“I’m Jay. I mean, Jayna Deitz-”

A voice in background of the call spoke up. “We should have just messaged her first.”

Amethyst heard Jayna pull the phone away from her ear for a moment. “Well, we’re doing this.” She spoke to Amethyst again. “You were adopted, right?”

Amethyst frowned. She sat up straight. “Yeah. Is this one of those survey things?”

“No,” Jayna said quickly.  “Actually, um- me and my sisters are pretty sure-”

Jayna had the phone snatched from her. “Hey!”

A new voice spoke this time.  “We think we’re your sisters.”

Amethyst was silent for several seconds. She got up and moved into the kitchen. Lapis paused the TV and looked to Peridot. Peridot shrugged.

“Sisters… plural?” Amethyst asked. 

Peridot and Lapis both sat up, turning to stare at her.

“There’s four of us,” she said. “I’m Kaylee, you were just talking to Jayna. Then there’s Elle and Gina.”

Amethyst was silent again. So was everyone on the other end of the phone line. Amethyst was pretty sure that whatever tension was in that room could be cut with a knife. She was looking at Peridot and Lapis, mostly to have something she could focus on.

“I have sisters.” she said again.

“You’re in Beach City, right?” Kaylee asked.

Amethyst nodded even though Kaylee couldn’t see it. “Yeah.”

“Are you busy tomorrow? We could meet up somewhere. If you want.”

Amethyst nodded again. “Yeah, Yeah, of course. There’s this place on the boardwalk, Fish Stew Pizza. We could meet there.”

“Six O’clock?”

“Yeah. Six. Sure.”

“Great. We’ll see you then.” Kaylee hung up. Amethyst stared at her phone as the call ended. She decided that might be the most interesting phone call she had ever gotten.

“Who was that?” Peridot said.

“My sisters,” Amethyst set her phone on the counter. “Apparently.”

“Since when do you have sisters?” Lapis asked.

“Um… I don’t know, they sounded older than me. So… always, maybe? From my birth mom? Or dad. They didn’t say.”

Slowly Amethyst went back to the couch. She had left her phone in the kitchen. “They said there’s four of them. And I’m going to meet them tomorrow.”

“Where did they get your number?” Lapis said. Peridot and Lapis had both turned back around.

“Facebook?” Amethyst offered. “They knew that I’m in Beach City.”

“Do you want is to come with you tomorrow?” Peridot said. “Although you don’t have your relationship listed on facebook. They may not be receptive to you having a girlfriend.”

“Especially two girlfriends,” Lapis added.

“I want you both coming,” Amethyst assured them. “If they aren’t down with my homegirls, they don’t deserve to be my sisters.” she paused for a moment. “Besides, what if they’re freaks? Maybe it was a joke or something.” It hadn’t sounded like a joke and it certainly wouldn’t be a very funny one. Amethyst glanced between Lapis and Peridot. She didn’t want to admit she was as nervous about this as she felt. She suddenly wished she hadn’t left her phone in the kitchen, but she didn’t want to get up again. She gestured at the TV. “Put it back on.”

Lapis didn’t unpause the TV. Peridot put her hand on Amethyst’s shoulder. “It’ll be great.”

 

Kaylee dropped Jayna’s phone onto the counter like it had burned her. 

“There,” she said quickly. “We called her.”

“You just hung up!” Jay cried. “What was that?”

“I did not just hang up. We’re meeting her tomorrow. Some place in Beach City, Fish Pizza or something.” 

“Did she sound excited?” Elle ventured.

Jay and Kaylee looked at each other and shrugged. 

“She mostly sounded shocked,” Kaylee said. 

“When are we meeting her?” Gina asked.

“Six O’Clock.”

Jay tapped her fingers on the table. “Should we bring something? Like… I don't know pictures of mom?”

Elle sunk into a chair. “Why? Mom was a dick.”

“Well, Amethyst probably doesn’t know that,” Jay said. “Mom gave her up the second she was born.”

Kaylee pulled a picture of a shelf, actually the only picture of their mother that they had sitting around. She set it on the table. It was the four of them with her at a canyon they had visited once, Elle just a baby in it. 

“Here. We can show her this if she asks.” 

Gina picked it up and put the whole thing, frame and all into her purse. “I don’t want to forget it.”


	2. Chapter 2

Amethyst had her fingers drumming endlessly on the table. Peridot put her hand over Amethyst’s.

“You’re panicking,” Peridot said.

“I’m not panicking,” Amethyst pulled her hand away. The three of them were seated at a table in the back corner of Fish Stew Pizza. Only a couple other tables were filled. She almost wished she had picked some place less empty. She couldn’t figure out if empty was going to be better or worse. Amethyst checked the time on her phone. It was ten to six. “I’m- I don’t know what I am.”

Amethyst buried her face in her phone again. Jayna had texted her this morning to make sure they had the right place. They hadn’t texted since. Amethyst wondered if she should send another message to make sure they were coming. She put her phone down and shoved it away from her. She started tapping her fingers on the table again.

“Sisters. What do you do with sisters? Peri, what do you do you do with sisters?”

Lapis stirred her straw around in her drink. It was the only thing any of them had ordered so far. “I don’t think Peridot’s sisterly experiences are going to be much help here.”

Amethyst groaned, dropping her head onto the table.

 

“Are you sure this is right?” Gina asked. She leaned over towards Jayna in the passenger seat to check the GPS on Jayna’s phone. Jayna tilted her phone away and turned the GPS off.

“There can’t possibly be that many restaurants called Fish Stew Pizza,” Kaylee said from the backseat. She got out of the car and shut the door, gesturing down the boardwalk.

Gina turned the car off, the rest of them following her out. Jayna shoved her phone away in her pocket.

Gina reached into her purse and ran her hand over the picture frame.

“Okay, none of us have actually moved,” Jayna realized. They were all still standing right outside the car. “Are we doing this or not?”

Elle nodded. “We’re doing this.”

 

Peridot poked Amethyst in the arm. “Amethyst. Amethyst.”

Amethyst kept her head on the table. “What?”

“I think that’s them.”

Amethyst shot her head up. The four Deitz girls were heading back towards their table.

Amethyst felt herself enter some sort of actual panic mode. “What do I do? What do I do?” She whispered urgently.

Neither Peridot or Lapis had an answer, and there wasn’t time for one anyway before the four girls reached the table. Jayna spoke up first. 

“Are you Amethyst?”

Amethyst nodded, looking up at them. They looked remarkably like her, despite all being quite a bit taller. “That’s me.”

Jayna held out her arm and shook Amethyst hand as the four of them sat down at the empty seats. The other three shook hands with her as well as they introduced themselves, but it was awkward and stiff. Amethyst hated it. Well, no. That wasn’t the problem. Saying names and shaking hands felt so empty. It didn’t mean anything. It was formal and weird and not much fun, like all five of them were intentionally holding back.

There was several seconds of silence before Amethyst remembered she hadn’t actually come here alone.

“Oh, this is Peridot and Lapis,” she gestured towards both of them. “They’re my-” she could say roommates, which wasn’t actually a lie and would easily avoid the possibility of them instantly disliking her for that fact alone. But she also didn’t want to lie to them. “They’re my girlfriends.”

Peridot thrust her hand out instantly. It didn’t look near as awkward when Peridot did it. Peridot was just about to say something when Lapis stood up and grabbed her arm.

“Let’s go order a pizza,” Lapis demanded.

“Wha-” Peridot was yanked from her seat, stumbling for once on her platform shoes. Lapis pulled her away, very intentionally leaving Amethyst and the other four alone. Amethyst tried to grab onto the edge of Lapis’s skirt, but they were already on the other side of the restaurant. They were not going anywhere near the counter, clearly having no intention of ordering pizza.

Amethyst didn’t like that it still felt awkward. She grabbed Lapis’s abandoned drink for something to do with her hands. Kaylee spoke up after a minute.

“Are you in school?”

“What?” Amethyst looked up from the drink. “Oh, yeah. I’m at the college here. I’m on a wrestling scholarship. Any of you guys still in school?” They looked older than her, Amethyst couldn’t guess by just how much. She wasn’t sure which one was actually the oldest. Everything that was being said still sounded too formal and boring. She didn’t want her sisters to be boring people.

“I just graduated,” Elle said, “Bachelors in Zoology.”

“I work at the South Side Mall in Empire City,” Kaylee said. “Security Guard.”

“I’m the only other one with a degree,” Gina added, “Associates in social work and therapy.”

“Hey, I do have a degree!” Jayna interrupted. “I’m a cosmetologist,” She told Amethyst.

“That’s not a degree,” Kaylee said, a tone that indicated this was very much a joke between them. Jayna smacked her on the arm.

Amethyst smiled, even though she didn’t actually get the joke. She could see Peridot and Lapis watching them from a table on the far side of the room. They were whispering to each other, and clearly paying very close attention to the conversation.

“You didn’t tell us your major,” Elle said. “What is it?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Amethyst shrugged. “I probably should soon. I’m running out of general ed classes to take.”

“Any ideas?” Gina asked.

“I don't know,” Amethyst shrugged again. “PE coach or something maybe?”

“What about your adopted parents?” Kaylee said. “What are their jobs?”

The tension changed. Amethyst wasn’t entirely sure if it was for better or worse this time.

“My mom was… My step dad runs a carwash. So I don’t think I’ll be picking that as a career.” Amethyst said, half hoping they wouldn’t notice the mention of her mother. If they did, none of them said anything about it. Amethyst quickly changed the subject. “What did our mom do? As a job?”

This time Amethyst was sure the tension got worse. Elle slumped back in her seat and crossed her arms. Jayna was staring very intently at Amethyst. Kaylee wasn’t looking at any of them. Gina glanced at her sisters and took the picture frame from her purse. She set it flat on the table.

“She worked with the state parks for a while. She got fired when I was about five, just before she got pregnant with Kaylee.”

Amethyst pulled the picture towards herself. There was something extremely strange and thrilling about actually seeing an image of the woman who had given birth to her. It was somehow weirder than sitting in a restaurant with people who actually shared her DNA.

Elle was now staring intently at at poster on the wall. Jayna hadn’t looked away from Amethyst at all. Kaylee suddenly stood up.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” She announced, quickly disappearing to the back of the restaurant. Gina watched her go and then continued anyway.

“She had a bunch of jobs after that,” Gina said. “We ended up in foster care when I was ten. She would have been pregnant with you then.”

Amethyst looked up from the picture. “What about now?”

“Jayna and I got legal custody for Kaylee and Elle as soon as we both could. We all have an apartment in Empire City.”

Amethyst wondered what exactly was being left out of the story. Something had to be. She decided to leave it alone for now.

Kaylee returned to the table just as the bell over the door rang.

“Amethyst!”

Amethyst looked up to see Steven and Greg. Steven ran directly towards her and pulled himself into Peridot’s empty chair.

Greg hurried up to the table. “I’m so sorry, Amethyst, I told him you looked busy-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Amethyst assured him, throwing an arm around Steven. “I’ve always got time for Steve-o here.”

Steve grinned and turned his attention to the four girls on the other side of the table. Every bit of tension had left the place completely when Steven had appeared. Gina had taken the chance to put the picture away. Elle no longer had her arms crossed, Kaylee was sitting down again, and Jayna was looking happily at Steven.

Steven held his hand out. “Hi. I’m Steven.”

The four girls repeated their names again and each shook his hand. With Steven, nothing about it was stiff or formal or awkward. Amethyst was pleased to see that they were all smiling this time.

Greg went to introduce himself as well. Amethyst took her arm off of Steven’s shoulders.

“Stevn,, Greg, these are actually my sisters.”

Steven gasped. He had stars in his eyes. “You have sisters?!”

Amethyst laughed. “Yes,” She gestured at Steven and Greg, “This is my little brother and my stepdad.”

“That’s so cool!” Steven burst out. “Oh! You guys should come to my Hannakus party next week!”

“You don’t have to come!” Amethyst said quickly. Not that she didn’t  _ want  _ them to be part of things. It was simply that the idea of them meeting  _ everyone,  _ because Amethyst already knew that Steven had invited half the town and everyone he was even remotely related to, was nerve wracking.

Kaylee grinned, leaning back in her chair. “We’d love to come.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elle is a zoologist I'm so funny.
> 
> Their mom is basically a personified concept of the Kindergarten so that way I don't have to bother dealing with the ASPR information. Someone else can figure out how that's all going to fit.
> 
> And I may have written myself into a corner cause now I have to go write a Hanukkah party. But Steven is definitely the kind of kid to throw giant parties for every single holiday and invite everyone he knows.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's dead week and instead of doing my essays I give you this

Amethyst fell onto the couch the moment they entered the apartment. 

“That was…” she paused. “Amazing.”

An it had been, especially after Steven showed up and made things ten times less awkward. They had finally gotten around to actually ordering pizza, and once she was no longer struggling to say a single word, Lapis and Peridot had rejoined the table as well. Amethyst had just meet her sisters. Real, actual, biological sisters.

“You shouldn’t have been nervous,” Peridot sat herself next to Amethyst. “WE told you t would be fine.”

Lapis snorted. “You said nothing helpful.”

“I was extremely helpful!”

Amethyst nudged Peridot with her foot. “No, you weren't.” She sat up. “But who cares about that because I have sisters now.” She flopped down onto her back again. “And Steven invited them to his party, and they’re coming.”

“So?” Lapis sat on the other side of Amethyst. “You like them.”

Amethyst threw her arm over her face. “I do like them. But Steven invites  _ everyone.  _ Which means they’ll end up meeting everyone.”

“We met everyone.” Lapis said.

“You are my girlfriends. These are my sisters. Somehow, that is worse.”

“Tell them not to come,” Lapis suggested.

“I can’t tell them that!” Amethyst moved her arm. “I want them to like me!’

“Then let them come.” Lapis said.

Amethyst groaned.

 

Amethyst scanned over the cars gathered around the house as they drove up. Lapis was stuck at work, so it was just her and Peridot. She was slightly relieved to see that it didn’t look like any of the Deitz girls were here yet. Maybe something had come up and they would be able to come at all. She shook her head. Lapis and Peridot were right. She wanted them here. She wanted to hang out with them. And if that meant them meeting every single person in Beach City… then that would have to do.

“Amethyst!” Steven was on the porch, dressed in an truly hideous Hanukkah sweater. He ran down to the street as Amethyst and Peridot got out of the car.

Steven grabbed one of Amethyst’s and Peridots hands, tugging them inside. “Your sisters are coming, right?! I was telling Pearl and Garnet about it and they think it’s really cool-”

Amethyst laughed, pulling Steven off their arms. She ruffled Stevens hair. “Yes. They’re coming.”

The house was already half full of people. Holiday music was playing and Amethyst recognized as something Greg had written. She was a tad impressed Steven had convinced Greg to actually let him play it. There was food and decorations all around, and Steven had been sure to pull out plenty of extra chairs.

Steven grinned, “Yes! They were so cool! Do you think they’ll want to come to more stuff? Cause I can make sure to invite them next time-”

“Slow down” Amethyst urged, “Let’s just see how this goes, alright?”

 

Peridot had gone off and was talking to Pearl about something. Amethyst was slumped on the couch with a glass of punch. She wished there was alcohol but Steven insisted parties were more fun without it.

“Hey, mini.”

Amethyst looked up. She sat up straight, almost spilling her cup when she saw Kaylee standing in front of her, dressed in a leather jacket.

“Hey! When did you guys get here?”

Kaylee sat herself on the couch next to Amethyst. “About five minutes ago. Steven showed up and insisted on introducing us to everybody. I told him I had to use the bathroom and slipped off. Cause I don’t feel like personally meeting every single person here.”

Amethyst looked around at the crowded room. “Steven throws pretty big parties.” She took a sip from her cup. “Did you call me Minnie? Like, the mouse?”

Kaylee laughed, “Like you being short.”

“I’m not that short!” Amethyst argued even though it was clearly a lie. She was shorter than any of the Deitz girls, and shorter than most of the other party guests as well. She didn’t argue against the nickname. She was thrilled that Kaylee had decided to give her one.

“So,” Amethyst said after a second. “What’s being a security guard like?”

“Boring mostly,” Kaylee shrugged. “I mean, even in Empire City people don’t steal as much as you’d think. Mostly I just end up dealing with lost kids.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

“Couple times a day. I think they always come to me cause I’m one of like, three girl security guards in the whole place.”

Amethyst considered that. “At least your bathroom isn’t crowded.”

Kaylee burst into laughter. Amethyst felt another thrill. 

Kaylee leaned back as the laughter subsided. “Man, I wish we found you sooner.”

Amethyst hoped having sisters would never feel normal. She liked it this way, as though every single interaction with one of them was the most amazing thing on the planet. She liked it feeling special.

“How did you find me anyway?” Amethyst asked.

“We started looking a couple years ago,” Kaylee said. “Then Jay saw a newspaper article about the wrestling tournament you were in and decided you kind of looked like us.” She shrugged and nudged Amethyst with her shoulder. “We dug around and now here we are. At the Hanukkah party for our little sister’s brother.”

Elle suddenly sat herself next to Amethyst, followed shortly by Gina and Jayna. Gina grabbed a stray chair and pulled in in front of them, while Jayna took the place next to Kaylee.

“Why is everyone you know named after a rock?” Elle asked.

“Everyone I know is not named after a rock!” Amethyst argued,

Elle began counting on her fingers. “Let’s see, your name is Amethyst, you’re dating two girls named Peridot and Lapis Lazuli. Steven just introduced us to Pearl, Garnet, Fluorite, Rhodonite, Ruby, Sapphire, Padparadscha-”

“Wasn’t the girl you fought in that wrestling tournament named Jasper?” Jay interjected.

“Fine,” Amethyst relented. “I know a lot of people named after rocks. In my defense-” she added. “Ruby and Sapphire weird family naming conventions are not my fault.”

“Your last name is a rock too.” Gina added.

Amethyst groaned. “I can’t win this can I?”

“No,” Jay said. “You can’t.”

 

The party was finally ending after a couple hours. Amethyst had spent most of it talking to her sisters in the corner, occasionally joined by Steven or Peridot. By now, almost everyone had gone home, including the Deitz’s who said they wanted to get back to Empire City before it got too late.

Amethyst was in the kitchen with Pearl, helping her put away the leftover food. Amethyst snapped the lid onto a container of cookies. 

“Hey, can Peridot and I take these?”

Pearl glanced over, busy rearranging more containers in the fridge. “You might as well,” She stood up straight and shut the fridge. “There’s too many leftovers just for Steven.”

Amethyst set the container aside so she wouldn’t forget it. “Thanks.”

“Steven introduced us to your sisters.” Pearl said suddenly.

Amethyst turned around to look at her. “What do you think?”

Pearl was silent for a moment. “They seem like lovely girls.”

“They’re amazing,” Amethyst said, unable to keep herself from smiling. “I like talking to them and having them in my phone and-” She looked out to the living room where Garnet was helping Steven take down the streamers he had hung up. “I like having them to come to stuff like this too.”

Pearl nodded as she put away unused paper plates. “I’m glad.”

“Hey, Pearl?”

Pearl hmmed as she turned back around. “Yes?”

“Did Rose know I had any family?”

Pearl pause in the middle of gathering up the bowls and platters they had used. “There… there wasn’t a lot of information about your birth family. Rose thought that-” she set the dishes in the sink- “If there was someone who could have been taking care of you, they would have been. She thought about looking a few times- but she wanted to wait until you were old enough.”

Amethyst nodded slowly. “You think she would be glad I found them now?”

There was another second of silence. Then, “Yes. I think she would be.”

“Thanks, P.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sharky deserves a leather jacket.  
> Also I didn't know what to do with Lapis. So she's just not there.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really short and none of the Fam actually appears, but I haven't quite figured out the next chapter yet so you get this for now instead

Amethyst rolled over in bed, reaching across Peridot to grab her buzzing cell phone.

Lapis groaned from the other side of her, not opening her eyes. “What time is it?”

Amethyst clicked her phone on. “Ten am.” She mumbled, looking down to the text from Gina that had set her phone off in the first place. Lapis rolled over, yanking the blanket over her head.

Amethyst sat up, tearing the blanket back from from Lapis.

Peridot blinked and yawned. “Amethyst?”

Amethyst ran a hand through her hair. “Gina wants me to spend Christmas with them.”

Lapis pulled the blankets back. “That’s good, right?”

“I mean, yeah,” Amethyst agreed. It was amazing. Except… “Christmas in the middle of Hanukkah this year.”

Peridot sat up, leaning over Amethyst’s shoulder and squinting at her phone. “So?”

“So, I usually spend it with Greg and Steven. And I like spending it with Steven.”

“It’s just one night,” Lapis said, her voice muffled under the blanket. “You can spend the rest of Hanukkah with Steven.”

“I guess,” Amethyst said, “but what about you guys? I had been hoping you would be coming with us to, but if I’m spending the night with them-”

“We’ll do something else that night,” Peridot said, grabbing her glasses so she could actually read the text. “If they want you to go, you should go.”

Amethyst nodded slowly. On one hand, the fact that the Deitz’s even wanted her to spend Christmas with them felt like a miracle. On the other hand, she didn’t want Steven to be disappointed if she wasn’t there.

“I’ll think about it.”

 

Amethyst had taken Steven out for ice cream, regardless of the fact that it was December and not prime ice cream season. She had gotten the strangest flavor the shop had, with about half a dozen toppings, while Steven just had strawberry. She dug her spoon into the bowl.

“Hey, Steven?”

Steven looked up, taking a lick from his cone. “Yeah?”

“I was…” She paused. “Would it be cool if I brought Lapis and Peridot over of Hanukkah?”

“Yeah!” Steven lit up. “That’d be so cool!”

Amethyst swallowed a spoonful of ice cream. She was stalling and she knew it. Why was stupid question about one stupid day so stressful? 

“I uh, also, my sisters invited me over for Christmas. Gina said I could spend the night on Christmas Eve, and then spend the day with them,” Amethyst blurted, rushing out the sentence far more quickly than she had planned.

Steven looked up from his ice cream. “Christmas is in the middle of Hanukkah this year.”

“I know,” Amethyst assured him. “I haven’t answered her yet. I wanted to ask you. It’s just the one night though. And it’s not like it’s the first one. And I’ll be there all the other nights!”

Steven was silent for a second. “You should go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Steven nodded. “They’re your family. You should do stuff with them. And we’ve had a bunch of holidays. And we’ll still have the other nights, right?”

Amethyst smiled. “Right. Thanks, Ste-man.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is full of fluff.

Amethyst parked her car and doubled checked the GPS on her phone. She glanced up at the apartment building. She wondered which window exactly was thiers, but it wasn't like there was any way to tell.

She clicked off her phone. Apartment 6C. It was going to be fantastic. They wanted her to spend Christmas with them. That was good.

Amethyst grabbed the backpack and the sleeping back Gina had told her to bring. SHe locked the car, steeling herself and heading inside. She was bouncing on her feet in the elevator, unsure if it was from being nervous or excited.

She stopped outside the apartment. She could hear them talking inside, but couldn't make out any of the words. She knocked on the door. 

Elle swung it open, wearing a tank top and fleece pajama pants. “Hey! You made it!”

Amethyst shrugged a shoulder. “I did say I was coming.”

Elle stepped aside for Amethyst to enter, shutting the door behind her. Gina waved from the kitchen, also in pajamas. “Hey!”

Kaylee waved a hand from were she was playing a video game on the couch, dressed in a tank top and boxers. Jayna came out of one of the bedrooms, pulling her hair into a ponytail.

“Hey,” Jay smiled. She gestured around. “You can dump your bag anywhere.”

Kay snorted. “We need to figure out a different greeting than hey.”

Jay shrugged, sitting down on the couch. Amethyst put her bag down in a corner by a bookshelf. 

“I uh, I brought presents. Is there somewhere to put those?” Considering she barely knew the girls, figuring out what to get them had been frustratingly difficult.

Elle pointed towards the window, where a standing land was decorated with garlands as opposed to having an actual tree. There was a small pile of presents at the bottom. “Over there.”

Amethyst tugged a couple of poorly wrapped presents out of her backpack, dumping them down on the pile.

Gina was in the middle of baking something, mixing up whatever was in the bowl in front of her. “You brought pajamas?”

Amethyst nodded. She wondered how long it would take before she no longer felt strange being in their house. “Yeah. Is there-”

“Bathroom’s through there,” Gina pointed. “Christmas eve is way more fun if you’re wearing pajamas the whole time.”

Amethyst nodded, grabbing up her bag and heading into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

Amethyst ran a hand through her hair. She needed to stop freaking out so much. It wasn’t like they were going to kick her out, like they would stop wanting to hang out with her. They were the ones who had found her. They were the ones who had invited her.

Outside the bathroom, Elle sat down at the kitchen counter. “So, are we sure the stuff we got for her isn’t stupid?”

Jay threw her arm over the back of the couch, turning to look into the kitchen. “Peridot said she would like it.”

“Peridot could be wrong,” Elle suggested.

“Who cares if she’s wrong?” Kay said, not looking up from her game. “We’ll give her the gift receipt.”

Gina poured her batter into a pan, handing the spoon over to Elle as she slid the pan into the oven. “She’ll like it,” Gina assured, although she wasn’t entirely convinced either. Getting a present for the sister you had only met a month ago wasn’t an easy task, not even when your best frame of reference for what she might like was said sister’s girlfriends. “Sharky, turn the game off.”

“Hold on” Kay grumbled. “I’m almost at a save point.”

“Sharky?” Amethyst questioned, leaving the bathroom just as Gina made her request, now changed into shorts and a tank top.

Kay rolled her eyes. “I had a shark phase when I was like, ten.”

“Yeah,” Jay agreed, nudging her sister. “And it didn’t end until you were like sixteen.”

“Sharks are cool,” Kay argued, saving her game. “And I continue to stand by that.”

Amethyst smiled, sitting herself at the counter next to Elle. Gina rolled her eyes. “Just get the game off.”

“So,” Amethyst said, “What do you guys do on Christmas?”

“We order chinese food and watch the worst Christmas movie we can find.” Jay said.

“Then we eat whatever weird cake Gina made and play cards against humanity.” Jay said, shutting off the game console.

“This is the same cake I made last year!” Gina argued. “And you loved that one.”

Kay shrugged, getting up and leaning against the counter. Elle got up and tossed her spoon into the sink.

“Okay, but the one you made the year before that,” Elle said, “was disgusting.”

“Yeah, that one was pretty awful,” Gina agreed.

“What was so bad about it?” Amethyst asked.

Jay took Elle’s empty stood. “She said it was supposed to be like… I don’t know french or something? But for one thing, it didn’t actually cook. And then the parts that were cooked tasted like dirt.”

“It was Italian,” Gina corrected. “But it was really bad. I stick to American cakes now.”

Kay tugged out Chinese menus from a drawer, dumping them on the counter. “Get whatever you want, M.”

“M?” AMethyst asked again.

“It’s short for Mini.” Kay smirked.

“You can’t shorten a nickname that’s already about me being short!”

Jay reached over and ruffled her hair, patting her head. “Yes, we can.”

Amethyst pulled her head away, unable to keep herself from smiling. A nickname off a nickname was even better than just a nickname.

Gina pushed a menu towards her. “Order whatever you want. And don’t worry about paying.”

“I can pay for it!” Amethyst said, picking up the menu. “I do have money-”

“You’re not paying,” Gina said. She smiled. “You can pay for yourself next year.”

 

They ended up watching some terrible Christmas romance, spending most of the movie mercilessly roasting the plot and the actors. Amethyst liked this a lot more than Steven’s party. It felt so much more casual, and so much more fun. She was still on a high from Gina’s implication that she could be spending Christmas with them again next year.

“Hey,” Elle said, “Is this weird?”

Amethyst looked up from her box of noodles. “Is what weird?”

“Celebrating Christmas with us when you’re Jewish?”

Amethyst shrugged. “I don’t think  _ I’m  _ Jewish, I mean, Steven and Greg are so that’s what they celebrate.” She stabbed a bit of meat with her chopstick. “I don’t think I’m anything.”

“What did you do before?” Jay asked, “I mean, you said Greg was your stepdad, right?”

“My mom and I did Christmas usually,” Amethyst said, “But not like, religiously or anything.”

The four others nodded. Kay spoke up from her spot on the floor in front of the couch. “Where is your mom?”

Elle and Jay shouted out. Gina kicked her lightly in the back of the head.”I thought we agreed not to ask that.”

Kay rubbed the back of her head. “I wanna know.”

“It’s fine,” Amethyst said quickly. “You can asked. There were some complications when Steven was born.”

“I’m sorry,” Gina said, speaking the only thing any of them felt like saying.

Amethyst shrugged. “It was a while ago. And you’know, we got Steven out of it.” Although it would have been better to have them both.

In an attempt to break the tension, Kay spoke up again. “I like Steven.”

“Why wasn’t he named after a rock?” Jay smirked.

Amethyst threw her head back and groaned. “You guys are never gonna let the rock thing go, are you?”

“Nope,” Gina agreed. “We are not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kay definitely has sharks on her boxers.   
> Also if anyone has any idea for what presents these girls should have gotten each other please tell me cause I haven't figured that out yet.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's angst now

Amethyst was woken up by Kaylee nudging her with her feet. She groaned, throwing an arm over her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Nearly noon,” Kaylee said. “You are Elle are the only ones still sleeping.”

Elle rolled over her in her blankets from her place across the room. “No,” she mumbled. “I have to work today. I refuse to get up until then.”

Amethyst sat up, rubbing her eyes. Instead of going off to their bedrooms, all five of the girls had slept on the floor of the living room thanks to sleeping bags, and generous amounts of blankets and pillows. Amethyst wasn’t sure what time they had all fallen asleep. They had finished their movie around ten, and finally stopped playing Cards Against Humanity around one am, after Kaylee had won five times, and spent another couple of hours talking about nothing and everything before anyone finally slept.

Kaylee grinned, practically launching herself at Elle and laying bodily across her sister.

“Oof!” Elle gasped, groaning. She tried to shove Kaylee away. “Get off!”

“Nope,” Kaylee decided. “If you’re not getting up, Ellie, why should I?”

Gina and Jayna were laughing from the couch. Elle rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll get up! Just get off me!”

Kaylee slid off her sister. Elle sat up, glaring at her. “Do you have to do that every time I refuse to wake up?”

Kaylee shrugged, She stood, grabbing a hair tie off her wrist and using it to pull her hair back. “Yes.”

Elle rolled her eyes, finally standing. “Whatever,” she mumbled, making her way into the bathroom. The door shut harder than it needed too. Kaylee was frowning.

Amethyst glanced around at the remaining girls. “Is… she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Gina said, waving a hand, although she was frowning as well.

Jayna stood up. “Come on, now that everyone is awake we have stuff to open!”

 

Amethyst wasn’t sure if her presents were a good idea. Well, one of them was just a set of gift cards because what else were you supposed to get your sisters who you had only just met? But the other one…

Amethyst was tapping her fingers on her knee, seated on the couch with Gina and Kaylee. Elle was slumped in an armchair, with Jayna on the floor by the coffee table.

Gina grabbed one of the presents Amethyst had brought.

“You don’t have to start with that one!” Amethyst burst. “I mean- you can. Steven came up with the idea and it’s kinda silly-”

“Oh please,” Kaylee said, “nothing can be worse than the year Jayna gave me a set of thirty kids books.”

“They were about sharks!” Jayna alleged. “And you loved them!”

Gina had already torn away the paper, revealing a small printed photo album, the kind anyone could make online. She flipped it open, finding it filled with photos of Amethyst, from the day Rose adopted her to a photo of all five girls Steven had insisted they take on the day they met.

Gina skimmed through the pages, her eyes wide. Elle and Jayna got up, leaning over the back of the couch to see exactly what it was.

Jayna reached over Gina’s shoulder, stopping the pages. “Oh my gosh, you were adorable.”

“Are you in ringlets?” Kaylee laughed, looking at a photo when Amethyst couldn’t be much more than ten.

“My mom wanted to try it,” Amethyst defended. “I told you it was silly-”

“It’s not silly,” Gina said, she pulled Amethyst closer, hugging her tight. “It’s fantastic.”

 

Elle hadn’t said a word to any of her sisters in hours. Amethyst had noticed it, but she didn’t say anything. Besides, most of the afternoon had been spent eating whatever leftovers were in the fridge and watching more terrible christmas movies, supplemented by several bonus rounds of Cards Against Humanity.

Elle had been looking through the pictures in the photo book. She finally slammed it shut, disappearing into her bedroom to get dressed for work.

Gina huffed. She followed Elle into their bedroom, shutting the door behind her. 

“Okay,” Gina said. “What’s your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem,” Elle muttered, yanking off her pajamas. 

“You’ve been pissy all day,” Gina countered. “I know there’s something wrong, Ellie. What is it?”

“Would you stop calling me that?” Elle tugged on her uniform, very pointedly not looking at Gina. “I’m not six anymore.”

“Is it Amethyst?”

“It’s not Amethyst.”

“Because you were acting like this after we met her, and after the Hanukkah party,” Gina crossed her arms, leaning back against the door.

Elle rolled her eyes, slumping into her desk adns he braided her hair back. “It’s not Amethyst,” she repeated. “Amethyst is great.”

Gina uncrossed her ars. “Then why are you acting like such a brat?”

“Is this how you talk to your therapy patients? Because it’s really working.”

“You want me to treat you like a therapy patient?”

“Maybe,” Elle grabbed her uniform hat and her purse. “Then it wouldn’t feel like my sister is interrogating me.”

Gina didn’t move from her place in front of the door, blocking Elle’s only exit. Elle glared. “Would you move?”

“No,” Gina siad. “Not until you tell me what is going on.”

“Move it!”

“No!”

“Get out of my way!” Elle tried to shove her away. Gina pushed her back.

“No! What is your problem with Amethyst?!”

“Amethyst isn’t the problem!” Elle snapped. “Amethyst is fantastic! She’s great, okay! The problem...” 

Elle groaned, reluctantly falling back onto her bed. She ran a hand over her face. “The problem is… Amethyst… got adopted.”

Gina frowned. She sat herself on the foot of Elle’s bed. “So what?”

“So- so she ended up with that great mom who- who took pictures and put ringlets in her hair and she has all the people we met at the party and all the stuff she was talking about last night before we went to bed and… we we ended up in that stupid group home.” She sat up and sighed. “And none of that is Amethyst’s fault! I know that.” Elle was silent for a moment. “Do you know what I remember about mom?”

Gina shook her head. “Not really.”

“She’s either passed out, or shooting something, or snorting something… I don’t think I even know what she actually sounded like and it never bothered me until now.”

Gina was silent and it felt like it lasted forever. “Elle-”

Elle stood up, shaking her head. “I gotta go. I’ll be late if I don’t leave soon.”

In the living room, Jayna and Kaylee had focused very hard on keeping the COH game going, even though Amethyst had long since stopped paying attention to it. Amethyst watched silently as Elle left the apartment, turning her attention to Gina as she left the bedroom.

Gina bee lined to the bookshelf, picking up the picture of the four girls and their mom at the canyon. “Is this the only picture we have with Elle in it?”

Jayna raised an eyebrow. “From when mom was around? Um, yeah, I think so.”

Amethyst glanced between them. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Gina said. “Everything’s fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I might have started projecting a little  
> But you know what, I can't write a canon fic involving the fam dealing with the horrors of a thousand year space war, but oh boy can I write their human versions dealing with horrors of an addict parent


	7. Chapter 7

Amethyst left soon after that. The other three girls had tried to assure her that the argument in the bedroom had nothing to do with he, although Amethyst didn’t believe that. After all, her name had come up several times.

Jayna peered out the window, watching as Amethyst drove off. She shut the blinds.

“Okay,” Jayna turned around. “You need to tell Amethyst what happened to mom.”

“Why me?” Gina asked, looking up from where she had slumped on the couch with the canyon picture.

“Because,” Jayna said, taking over the armchair. “That counselor they made me go to in high school said I repressed everything and Kay barely remembers anything more than Elle does.”

Gina put the photo down on the coffee table. “Am I really the only one who remembers anything?”

“Pretty much,” Kaylee said, gathering up the COH cards. “What exactly was Elle upset about anyway?”

“She’s… jealous of Amethyst I guess?” Gina sighed. “I mean… She’s mad I guess that Amethyst ended up with all these people and we just had-”

“A couple of raging trash fires?” Kaylee offered, easily referring both to their actual mother, and the foster mother from the group home.

“You really don’t remember anything good about mom?” Gina urged.

“Nothing,” Kaylee said, flopping onto the couch. 

“Not really,” Jayna agreed. “And Amethyst definitely thinks the way Elle was acting was her fault. I’ll talk to Elle and get her to text Amethyst and apologize. But you have to tell Amethyst what she was really mad about.”

 

Amethyst called up Lapis and Peridot on her drive home, feeling a little bad that she hadn’t even texted them yet today.

She had called Peridot, but Lapis was the one who answered. “Hey. How was it?”

“Where’s Peri?”

“Driving,” Lapis answered.

“Put it on speaker!” Peridot demanded, trying to grab her phone back while also not crashing. Lapis swatted her hand away and turned the speaker on.

“How was it?” Peridot asked instantly.

“It was great,” Amethyst said. “Well… last night was great. It was all casual and fun and I think Gina invited me for next year too so that was amazing.”

“What went wrong?” Lapis asked.

Peridot fronwed. “Did anything go wrong?”

“A little.” Amethyst shrugged. “Elle was acting kinda mad all day, then just before she left for work she was yelling at Gina about something.”

“Was it about you?” Peridot leaned towards the phone as though it would help Amethyst hear her better.

“Gina said it wasn’t.” Amethyst sighed. “But I definitely heard my name come up.” It worried her. She didn't think she had done anything to upset Elle. She was sure she hadn't. Not unless it was something weird. Something most people wouldn’t even think about. “Where are you guys going?”

“Stevens,” Lapis said. Despite Steven’s insistence that they be there last night without Amethyst, the two of them had simply stayed home instead. “You’re coming right?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way,” Amethyst glanced at the time. Empire City wasn’t too far, but it was still a bit of a drive. “Tell him I’ll be there soon.”

 

As soon as Amethyst arrived Steven was already bombarding her with questions about her night. Amethyst answered them all, trying to forget about how awkward things had been when she left as she assured Steven that yes it had been fun, and yes she enjoyed it, and yes they liked the photo book.

Amethyst was eventually left alone on the couch with Garnet. Garnet looked over at her. “Tell me about it.”

“It was good,” Amethyst sat up on her knees. “It was great. It was-”

“But it wasn’t when you left.”

“How do you do that?”

“Tell me what happened.”

“It was fun!” Amethyst insisted. “It was great! But then… I don’t know. Elle started acting weird and then she and and Gina were telling.” Amethyst sighed and slumped in her seat. “Gina said it didn’t have to do with me, but I know I heard my name. A lot.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Amethyst rolled her eyes. “How do you know that?”

“You’re new. They only just met you. And I’m sure they still have to figure out how you fit into their lives.”

“What does that mean?”

“The argument might have had to do with you, but it wasn’t about you. And it wasn’t your fault.”

“That’s the same thing, G.” Amethyst rubbed her eyes. She hadn’t realized how tired she actually was until getting to Stevens. “So…”

“You didn’t cause it. And whatever they were fighting about, it’s not something you need to fix. If it needs to be fixed, they’ll come to you.”

“Why can’t you give advice that makes sense? Like a normal person?”

Garnet smiled. “Trust me, Amethyst. Whatever happened, it isn’t going to stop them wanting to be around you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time I've written Garnet and keeping her from asking actual questions is hard


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, school started up again and I've been trying to get a lot done on my original stuff

Gina had asked to meet Amethyst in a coffee shop. It was early on News Year Eve, just a week since Christmas. Elle had texted Amethyst, apologizing for how she had acted. Amethyst had assured her in return that it was fine. It wasn’t really. Well, it was. It wasn’t that Amethyst minded Elle getting upset, she hated it when Garnet and Pearl acted like she wasn’t allowed to be mad about something. Amethyst just wanted to know why it had happened. Elle hadn’t explained. Amethyst was hoping Gina would.

Amethyst was already there when Gina arrived, sitting at a corner table with a cup of coffee filled with with a horrifying variety of the syrup flavorings and far too much sugar. Gina waved, ordering her own drink before sliding in across from Amethyst.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Are you gonna tell me what Elle was so mad about?”

Gina sighed. She took a sip of her drink, then grabbed a sugar packet off the table and dumped it in. “She texted you, right?”

“Yeah,” Amethyst nodded, “but she didn’t tell me why she was upset in the first place.”

Gina leaned back in her seat. “She… she’s jealous you were adopted.”

Amethyst frowned. “Oh.” She leaned back as well, feeling increasingly awkward. “... Why?”

“Its…” Gina took another sip of her coffee. She ran a hand through her hair. “We were in foster care. And uh, I don’t know if you know this, but foster care sucks,” Gina smiled a little before it faded. “It just sucks. And being adopted would have been great, but no one was going to adopt four girls from a crack house and…”

“I got all the stuff Elle wanted,” Amethyst finished.

Gina nodded. “Pretty much.”

Amethyst nodded slowly. She dumped another sugar packet in her coffee and took a drink. “You lived in a crack house?”

“Not really, I mean, it wasn't like an actual crack house. I’m pretty sure Mom wasn’t making crack-” Gina paused. She thought for a second. “Yeah, she wasn’t making crack. I think. We had this really small apartment, I feel like I would have known if she was.” She paused again. Gina straightened up and waved a hand. “When I was really little things weren’t all that bad? I think my dad was around sometimes back then but I don’t remember him and besides, he was long gone before Mom every met Jayna's dad. Just, I’m the only one who really remembers anything being okay. And by the time I was like, five or six or something, Mom was always high or drunk or I don’t know what. She couldn’t keep a job, we were living of welfare and food stamps and I’m not even sure how we managed to keep the apartment. The group home was better than that. Well, it sucked too. But it sucked differently.”

“... Was she on crack?”

“I don’t know,” Gina shrugged. “Maybe.”

“How…” Amethyst had finished her drink during Gina’s speech and found herself wishing she had more. She didn’t get up to go order a new one. “When did you get put in foster care?”

Gina ran a hand over her face. She started bouncing her leg, only half aware she was doing it. “I was ten. Elle hadn’t started school yet. Jayna and Kaylee and I came home and Mom was passed out on the couch. Which was normal. Elle was playing on the floor with a cigarette lighter. She hadn’t figured out how to turn it on, thank goodness. I took it away from her. I went into the bathroom and the counter was covered with needles and I don’t know what else and..” Gina locked eyes with Amethyst. “And a pregnancy test.”

“That was me…” Amethyst said.

“That was you,” Gina agreed. “So… I tried to wake Mom up. Tried to yell at her,” Gina snorted. “I don’t know how I thought that was going to help. So called the police. I had to steal a quarter out of Mom’s purse an use a payphone outside the building cause we didn’t have a landline and Mom definitely wasn’t paying her cellphone bill.” Gina shrugged. She straightened up, her hands wrapping around her cup. It was getting cold. “CPS showed up and put us in a group home because I refused to let them separate us. Elle doesn’t know that. Maybe a couple of us would have been adopted if I had…”

There was several seconds of silence. Gina drank some of her coffee more for something to do than anything else. It was a stupid thing to regret. It wasn’t a regret, not really. It was just one of those things. One thing you could have done that could have changed so many other things, with no way to know if it would have been better or worse.

“What happened to mom?” Amethyst asked finally.

“She was in a rehab center for a while,” Gina looked relieved to start talking again. “We got to visit her a few times. That’s where that picture we showed you was from. One of the early visits and I guess she had decided to start trying again and got permission to take us to these canyons a couple hours away. But then she gave birth and, I don’t know, legally or something, they couldn’t keep her in rehab anymore. We were supposed to have another visit and then Holly- she ran the group home- just told us Mom had officially signed away all her parental rights. Don’t know where she went. For all we know she could be dead.”

Amethyst gnawed at her lip. A few weeks ago she had never thought about her birth parents. It was weird to know that her birth mom simply hadn’t cared for her at all. 

“Did you ever try to find her?”

“I thought about it,” Gina shrugged. “No one else wanted to bother.” She smiled. “We decided to start looking for you instead.”

Amethyst drank the last of her coffee. “I'm happy you did."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know anything about coffee or drugs

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know who their mom is supposed to be at it's really not important. Kaylee is supposed to be Sharky/8XK. Then of course Jayna is 8XJ, Gina is 8XG, and Elle is 8XL.  
> Once I write the chapter where they actually meet it's gonna be so good and pure and wonderful ok


End file.
